1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to vehicle body front structure of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
With a vehicle body front structure described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2012-214211 (JP 2012-214211 A), a branch frame extends outward at an angle toward the front of a vehicle from a center portion of a front side frame in the vehicle longitudinal direction. A rear end portion of this branch frame that passes through an outside surface of the front side frame in the vehicle width direction extends toward a rear side of the vehicle along an inner wall of the front side frame. By providing this kind of branch frame, impact energy is effectively absorbed when a narrow offset collision (i.e., a small overlap collision), in which a colliding object such as an oncoming vehicle collides in a frontal collision with the vehicle in a position farther to the vehicle width direction outside than the front side frame of the vehicle, occurs.
However, with the vehicle body front structure described above, a vehicle width direction outside wall of a rear half portion of the front side frame, and a vehicle width direction outside wall of the branch frame are formed by a common second side plate. This second side plate is bent at a weak portion formed on a connecting portion of the front side frame and the branch frame, so rigidity with respect to a collision load from the vehicle front side is low, and consequently the second side plate may not sufficiently contribute to the transmission of the collision load from the branch frame to the front side member. Therefore, there is room for improvement from the viewpoint of efficiently transmitting, to the front side member, a collision load that is input from the vehicle front side to the vehicle width direction outside of the front side member.